Rabbi: Driver Killed In SUV-Train Crash Was A 'Beautiful Soul'

Friends and family of Ellen Brody, the woman who died when the SUV she was driving was hit by a suburban commuter train gathered to mourn her loss and to say their final goodbyes. (Feb. 6)

Friends and family of Ellen Brody, the woman who died when the SUV she was driving was hit by a suburban commuter train gathered to mourn her loss and to say their final goodbyes. (Feb. 6)

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Investigators are trying to figure out why an SUV driver drove onto the Metro-North trakcs in Valhalla when the crossing gates were down.

Investigators are trying to figure out why an SUV driver drove onto the Metro-North trakcs in Valhalla when the crossing gates were down.

JENNIFER PELTZ, JIM FITZGERALDAssociated Press

The emergency brake was applied before a Metro-North train crashed into an SUV in New York

DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (AP) — The SUV driver involved in a train wreck that claimed six lives was "a beautiful soul" who always took a genuine interest in others, her rabbi said Friday at her funeral.

Many young adults were among the mourners at the Dobbs Ferry funeral for Ellen Brody, a 49-year-old mother of three daughters in their teens and 20s.

"I was looking through our archives last night. We have dozens of pictures of Ellen," Rabbi Benjy Silverman said before the service. "And in each one, without fail, she has a huge smile, a warm smile. We call it the Ellen Smile."

She was "a beautiful soul" who found the beauty in others, Silverman said.

"She adored her daughters and husband. She was their biggest fan and supporter," he said.

Brody worked at a suburban jewelry store and was married to Alan Brody, an author and journalist. She was active in Chabad of the Rivertowns throughout the synagogue's 12 years.

A packed commuter train slammed into a sport utility vehicle on the tracks at a crossing and erupted into flames Tuesday night, killing seven people.

"She was a warm, vivacious and dynamic presence in our lives, and the most loving and nurturing mother, wife, daughter and sister," Ellen Brody's family said in a statement.

Another funeral was planned Friday in Mount Kisco for 53-year-old Eric Vandercar, one of the five train passengers killed.

According to investigators' preliminary findings, Brody's car was in the danger zone inside railroad crossing gates for about half a minute before the train hit.

Brody got ahead of the crossing gate in inching traffic, then got out of her car to examine it after the gate came down and hit the back of it, a witness has said. But then she got back in, seeming unhurried, and advanced onto the track, the witness told news outlets and investigators.

The train's engineer also told investigators that he saw the car moving onto the tracks.

Data recorders also show the Metro-North Railroad train's engineer hit the emergency brakes and sounded the horn as the train bore down on the Valhalla crossing, traveling 58 mph in a 60 mph zone, National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Thursday.

The agency hasn't mapped out how far before the Valhalla crossing the engineer hit the emergency brake on the train, which takes about 950 feet and 30 seconds to stop, he said in the second day of a probe into the crash. A 41-year-old Danbury man, Aditya Tomar, was among those who were killed, according to Mayor Mark Boughton.

Sumwalt said flashing lights at the Valhalla crossing illuminated 39 seconds before the wreck and the gates came down a few seconds later. He said the train was going just under the 60 mph speed limit and the engineer hit the emergency brake.

A witness said the driver had gotten out of her SUV after a crossing gate came down on it but then got back in and drove forward onto the track as the train approached.

Flames enveloped the SUV and part of the train. The electrified third rail pierced them.

"What we have here is we have a mosaic," Sumwalt said Thursday. "We're going to take different pieces of information ... assemble it and see what that picture looks like" and build "a timeline so we know exactly what happened and when."

Investigators haven't found any problems with the warning signals or the nearby traffic lights, which are synched to let drivers clear the crossing when a train is coming, Sumwalt said. The crossing also had painted warnings on its pavement, and a sign 65 feet from the rail warns drivers not to stop on the tracks, he noted.

The agency hasn't mapped out how far before the crossing the engineer hit the emergency brakes on thetrain, which takes about 950 feet and 30 seconds to stop, Sumwalt said.

After the impact, flames enveloped the SUV and part of the train, and the electrified third rail pierced them. Hundreds of passengers scrambled through spreading smoke and fear, some helping each other to escape despite their own injuries.

Trains hit cars on the tracks many times a year, but such crashes rarely kill train riders. Investigators have emphasized that they want to figure out why this one did, becoming the deadliest accident in the 32-year history of one of the nation's busiest commuter railroads.

Investigators are looking for any elements that may have intensified the fire, which they believe was ignited by the SUV's gas tank. The NTSB has been examining such factors as the adequacy of emergency exits, the crashworthiness of the train cars and the unusual design of the Metro-North line's third rail.

The agency also is looking into how familiar Brody was with her car and her route, whether she was using a cellphone and whether the backed-up traffic played a role.

A Connecticut man who was riding in the second car of the crowded commuter train said Wednesday that he was "lucky" to be alive.

"I feel very blessed to be here today," James Wallace, 44, of Ridgefield, told The Courant.

Wallace said he was part of a group that was trying to rescue passengers from the first car, which was on fire. The group was unable to break the thick window glass of the door that separated the rail cars, he said.

"I wish we had been able to get there," Wallace said.

Wallace said he drives to the Goldens Bridge station in Westchester County, a few stops north of Valhalla, to catch the train to his sales job with Amazon.com.

He was in the second car when he and other passengers felt the train come to an abrupt stop. It felt as though the conductor had slammed on the brakes, he said. Then he heard and felt the train scraping, and passengers thought the train had derailed. Wallace said he looked out the window and saw that the train had not derailed.

He saw flames in the first car, which was quickly filling with smoke. He also heard popping sounds — explosions. People in the first car could be seen moving around in the smoke.

"You could see that there were flames in the first car," he said. "People were starting to panic. We were just trying to get people to stay calm."

People were running, saying. " 'We've got to get out of here,' " he said.

Wallace said his training from his days as an ambulance volunteer in Tarrytown kicked in, and he tried to get people to calm down. He put his arm around one woman who seemed anxious and made eye contact with her, he said. He said he explained that it is important to stay calm.

Wallace and some other passengers found a fire extinguisher and tried to get into the first car, but they weren't able to break the window on the door that separated the cars, he said.

Passengers in his car formed a line to leave out the back, but the line didn't move, Wallace said. He smelled an odor of gas and thought of a faster way to escape: He jumped out a side door — opposite the side with the electrified third rail — and landed in a snowbank that led into a cemetery, he said.

He said he saw a man with a broken leg, and another person carrying a male passenger who had lost his legs, he said. And he talked to a man who had seen a male passenger killed by the third rail that had pierced the train.

It was a "pretty hellacious night," Wallace said.

He said he doesn't ride in the first car because he finds that the train's whistle is too loud there. Now, he said, he has another reason not to ride there.

Wallace said he probably was shoulder to shoulder with some of those injured or killed when he boarded the train earlier Tuesday in Manhattan.

"I was thinking about how they were probably walking right next to me on the platform at Grand Central," he said. "I'm glad to be here today."Railroad grade crossings like the one in Valhalla — which are used on Metro-North's Harlem Line but are not used on the main New Haven Line in Connecticut — typically have gate arms designed to lift automatically if they hit a car or other object on the way down, railroad safety consultant Grady Cothen said. The wooden arms are designed to be easily broken if a car trapped between them moves forward or backward, he said.

Passengers returned, some with hesitation, as service resumed Thursday on the line where the crash happened, after workers rebuilt about 500 feet of the third rail.

Julie Garla was feeling "very lucky and still a little scared" as she rode the Harlem Line - but not in her usual seat. She used to prefer the front car because it's more convenient when she gets out at Grand Central Terminal. But the front car became the death zone in Tuesday's wreck.

"Now, I'll have to balance everyday convenience against safety," she said.

But Bill Peterson is sticking with riding in the front.

"I believe the Lord's going to protect me," he said, and "the chances of it happening again are probably tiny."

While officials did not immediately release any victims' names, employers and family members confirmed that the dead included Walter Liedtke, a curator of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Eric Vandercar, 53, a senior managing director at Mesirow Financial, Aditya Tomar, 41, who worked in the financial field in Manhattan, Robert Dirks, 36, a research scientist at D.E. Shaw Research in Manhattan, Joseph Nadol, an executive with JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Aditya Tomar, who worked in asset management at JPMorgan.